Demonstrating a Commitment to Affordable Housing

The overall objective of the Housing Opportunities Program is to improve housing stock and preserve neighborhoods by working with community based organizations, creating homeownership opportunities, assisting homeowners to bring their residences up to Baltimore County codes and standards, and to stimulate the development and redevelopment of high quality multifamily housing for County renters.

The county's commitment within its fiscal capacity is to ensure that each of its residents has the resources to enjoy a high quality of life and that each of its communities is livable and attractive. Among these resources is the right of fair and equal access to housing that is decent, safe, sanitary, and affordable. To this end, Baltimore County is making an effort to maintain its institutional and financial capacity to ensure the availability of housing for all its citizens.

The county will undertake several activities in the coming year to increase access to affordable housing and to maintain affordable housing by:

• Increasing access to homeownership, in particular, assisting first-time low-to-moderate income homebuyers to purchase existing homes within the community conservation areas;
• Increasing the availability of affordable and workforce housing within existing older communities;
• Creating housing opportunities for populations with special needs, including the elderly, people with disabilities and households of low or fixed income;
• Building and increasing community-based capacity to acquire and rehabilitate existing housing as part of a community-based redevelopment strategy;
• Promoting the use of sustainable design and green housing techniques in the construction of and the rehabilitation of affordable housing;
• Promoting maintenance of the current supply of decent, affordable, assisted housing within the context of stable, well-maintained, and well-serviced neighborhoods;
• Promoting full utilization of all existing subsidies, including Housing Choice Vouchers;
• Providing opportunities for economic self-sufficiency and asset development needed to empower assisted housing program participants; and
• Promoting fair housing and equal opportunity in housing.

These activities represent sound investments in the future of the county, as well as in the future of each of its citizens. These activities complement the county's broader housing strategies that are not necessarily income-based, but focus on the stabilization and revitalization of older neighborhoods. These strategies also build community capacity necessary to address housing issues and to increase the supply of affordable, decent, and safe housing.

For a complete listing of housing loan and grant programs please see Overview of Homeownership Programs.

Revised July 5, 2006